The Case for a New Mass Workers' Party [Back]

6. What kind of party?

SOME LEFT-WING groups argue that by calling for a new mass workers’ party we are trying to create a Labour Party Mark II; a party where reformist ideas would predominate, sowing the false idea that capitalism could be gradually transformed into a better society. Surely, they reason, we should be calling for a mass revolutionary party instead.

Unfortunately they completely misunderstand the role that a mass workers’ party could play in the struggle to change society.

Revolutionary change

CAPITALISM AS AN economic and social system is incapable of meeting the needs of working class people. 

It is based on exploitation and the accumulation of profit by a minority who own and control the means of producing wealth. One fifth of the world’s population lives on less than $1 a day while just 200 billionaires control assets worth $1.1 trillion. The output of the five biggest multinationals is greater than that of the Middle East and Africa combined. Five hundred corporations control 70% of world trade.

Capitalism is at root an unequal and unjust system which subjects millions to poverty, famine, disease, war and environmental destruction. We agree that it cannot be gradually reformed. 

What is required, is a fundamental revolutionary change in the way that society is structured and organised. This would need to involve mass action by working class people, so that the means of producing wealth could be democratically owned and controlled and society planned to meet the needs of the majority, not just a privileged few.

We are under no illusion, however, that the capitalists internationally would willingly relinquish control. Whenever, in the past, they have faced a fundamental challenge to their economic and political dominance by working class people, they have organised and attempted to use every means at their disposal (including the police, army and state forces generally) to maintain control.

Working class people, because of their unique position in the production process, are the force with the potential to change society. But this can only be achieved successfully if they are themselves organised in a cohesive party with a clearly defined programme; a party that can give direction at each stage of the struggle and has a clear idea of what it is fighting for and how it can be achieved.

There have unfortunately been far too many occasions in history when working class people have moved into struggle in their millions, with the possibility of changing society, only to be defeated because no such party existed. And because capitalism is a global system, workers need to be organised on an international basis.

At this stage an important minority are prepared to directly join a party, such as the Socialist Party, which is part of an international organisation and has a distinct revolutionary programme and strategy. This is especially true of a section of young people who are actively seeking out a radical alternative to the current system.

But a genuine, democratic, socialist alternative to capitalism cannot be achieved by a minority, however determined or dedicated they might be. Socialism is about the majority of people having democratic control over every aspect of their lives and actively participating in the running of society. The process of changing society itself requires the active participation or support of the mass of working class people.

Changing consciousness

SO HOW WILL working class people become aware on a mass scale of the need for a fundamental change in society and of the potential power which they have to change things? 

It will be through a combination of struggle and ideas - and a mass workers’ party could play an important role in that process.

Future struggles in the workplaces, communities etc will mobilise millions of working class people. In the campaign against the poll tax in the late 1980s and early 1990s, 18 million people refused to pay, defeating the tax and bringing down Thatcher in the process. 

Even bigger battles will take place in the future as working class people feel they have no choice but to fight back against the way that capitalism is affecting their lives. It’s from these types of struggles that a new mass party will be built.

But working class people won’t move into struggle all with the same ideas, attitudes and outlook. Some will be fighting against particular affects of capitalism, such as privatisation, low pay, job losses, cuts in local services, destruction of the environment, racism and discrimination etc. Others will become aware through struggle of the need to fight against not just this or that affect of the system but to broaden the struggle to challenge the system itself.

In the anti-capitalist movement, for example, the participants are far from united or in agreement about what they are fighting for or what strategy should be employed to achieve their goals.

A minority have drawn the conclusion that capitalism as a system is fundamentally flawed and that a revolutionary change in society is necessary. But even they are divided about what kind of system capitalism should be replaced with and what methods should be used to take the struggle forward. 

While some would agree on the need for an organised party with a clear revolutionary programme, others put their faith in direct action and networking via the Internet as a means of bringing about change.

Others believe that the main aim is not revolutionary change but reform of the institutions which represent global capitalism, such as the IMF, WTO and World Bank. It is the ‘excesses’ of capitalism which they target. Globalisation is identified as the main enemy, as if it were somehow a distinctive system, separate from capitalism itself, rather than a particular stage of capitalist development.

A new workers’ party

A NEW WORKERS’ party could play the role of uniting together, around a fighting anti-capitalist programme, all those who want to struggle against the system and its affects. 

It could be a vehicle for defending the interests of working class people through collective action in the workplaces, communities and society generally and could become a pole of attraction to the most class conscious workers and youth, as well as radicalised middle class people.

The different sections of the capitalist class come together in their own political parties and international forums to discuss the interests of the capitalist system as a whole. 

In the same way, by bringing together working class people to struggle and discuss collectively, a fighting mass workers’ party could be a means of workers moving beyond their own particular interests to develop a broader class awareness and outlook. This is necessary both for the task of ending capitalism and the building of a new society.

This would represent an enormous step forward for working class people, just as the formation of the Labour Party did at the beginning of the last century.

Frederick Engels, Karl Marx’s closest political collaborator, died before the Labour Party was formed. But when he was alive he followed closely developments towards an independent workers’ party. As a Marxist he stood 100% for a revolutionary change in society. Yet in 1893 he welcomed the formation of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) whose programme wasn’t even explicitly socialist let alone revolutionary (see Appendix).

He recognised that, despite its ideological weakness, the ILP arose out of working class struggle and had the potential to become a mass independent workers’ party. It therefore represented a significant advance for working class people. 

Writing about its leaders he stated 

"the majority of the best of them… are not strangers to an inclination to intrigue, closely bound with the parliamentary regime; but behind them stand the masses, who will either teach them decency or throw them overboard".

A new mass party could help workers to develop an awareness of the need to transform society and of their own role in that process. However a new party could not be an end in itself. A fundamental change requires a revolutionary programme and party.

Engels advised Marxists to do everything they could to promote an independent workers’ party. And if a party was formed, he argued, they should participate in it, involving themselves in the struggles of working class people and using every opportunity to convince workers that revolutionary change was necessary.

Unfortunately the forces of genuine Marxism were extremely weak at the time and the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), which called itself Marxist, took an extremely sectarian attitude towards the newly formed Labour Representation Committee, eventually turning its back on it (see Appendix).

As a consequence, those advocating gradual reform of capitalism became dominant within the party. But this was not an inevitable development. If a Marxist organisation, with a clear programme and strategy, had existed, the outcome might have been very different.

In a future broad party, there will inevitably be debate and discussion about programme, strategy and perspectives. Can capitalism be reformed or is a more fundamental change in society needed? Should capitalism be replaced by socialism and if so what kind of socialism should it be? How can socialism be achieved?

These questions and many more would be clarified through discussion and experience in the struggle itself. Through participation in these struggles and debates, the Socialist Party would hope to convince workers that a revolutionary programme and organisation were needed in order to change society.

 

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The Case for a New Mass Workers' Party

7. Making a difference

ON A GLOBAL scale capitalism means misery for millions while a rich minority enjoy unimaginable wealth. 

In the world’s richest economy, the USA, 45 million people live below the poverty line and 40% have no health insurance. The richest 1% (2.7 million) own as much wealth as the poorest 40% (100 million).

This was the situation after ten years of economic upswing. Now the USA and the world economy are facing recession. As the economy moves into crisis, the capitalists internationally will do everything they can to maintain their profits at the expense of the jobs, conditions and lives of working class people.

In Britain even before a recession, the jobs of thousands of car workers at Fords in Dagenham and Vauxhall in Luton, steelworkers at Corus and textile workers at Coats Vyella and elsewhere, were being sacrificed in the name of profit.

As the crisis intensifies, the capitalists will step up their attacks on jobs, pay, working conditions, health, education and other services vital to the lives of working and middle class people. This is the future for the majority of the population if capitalism as a system remains in place. Socialism, therefore, is not just a nice idea, but an absolute necessity.

The lack of a mass party to politically represent the interests of working class people, to collectively organise resistance against the attacks of capitalism and to argue for an end to the profit system and for socialist ideas, is a weakness at the present time.

Such a party will be built from the mass struggles which will inevitably emerge in the future as the crisis of capitalism deepens. But this doesn’t mean that we should sit back and passively await future events. 

It will be a combination of events and the conscious role of socialists who understand the need for a new mass party which will be the key to future developments. We can and are taking concrete steps now to help speed up this process.

Reclaiming the unions

THE SOCIALIST PARTY will continue to work together with other organisations where it is possible to build democratic and inclusive socialist alliances. 

At the same time, the work that we are carrying out in the trade unions and workplaces is very important. 

This includes arguing the case for disaffiliation from New Labour, moving resolutions calling for the freeing up of the unions’ political funds, supporting alternative candidates in elections, encouraging groups of workers to stand their own candidates, and generally promoting the idea of a new workers’ party. 

But the other patient day to day work which we are involved in, is also inextricably linked to the building of a new workers’ party.

Most of the current trade union leaders will play no role in creating a new party, in fact they will actively oppose any moves in that direction. However a leftward shift is already taking place in some unions. 

In December 2000, Mark Serwotka, a socialist, was elected as general secretary of the main civil service union, the PCS, receiving 40,000 votes. His victory reflects the growing anger amongst ordinary civil servants against low pay and privatisation.

Also in 2000, Socialist Party member Roger Bannister won over 71,000 votes (33%) in the election for general secretary of the public services union UNISON, the biggest union in Britain, almost double the percentage he received when he stood in 1995. 

His programme called for national action to defend jobs and services, a minimum wage of at least £5 an hour, and a pledge that, if elected, he would not take the £74,000 general secretary’s salary but would live on the average wage of a UNISON member.

At one stage his campaign was generating so much support that the right-wing were terrified that he was going to win. If he had, it would have been a huge victory for UNISON members to have a fighting general secretary who would stand up against low pay, privatisation, job cuts and attacks on working conditions. 

But a victory could also have had a much wider impact. UNISON is the biggest trade union in Britain with 1.3 million members. If he had been elected general secretary, Roger could have used the authority of that position to call a conference of all trade unionists to discuss the question of a new workers’ party.

Socialists can make a difference. The work that we do now in UNISON, PCS and other unions – building the unions from below, strengthening the broad left organisations, and challenging the right-wing pro-market leadership at the top – is not just vital for defending the immediate interests of workers in the workplaces, but can also play a key role in the wider task of building a new mass party.

Giving a lead

IN THE FUTURE, campaigns against privatisation and cuts in the NHS, education, housing, transport and other services, single issue campaigns around other social questions, all have the potential to develop rapidly and lay the basis for a new broader political organisation.

Socialists can also make a difference here. The Socialist Party has a proud record of initiating, participating in and giving a lead to community and single issue campaigns; 

– to name just a few.

In 1998 in Killamarsh near Sheffield, local people came together to form Residents Against Sarp Pollution (RASP). They successfully campaigned to shut down a toxic waste dump, run by the Sarp company, which had previously experienced two major acid leaks. 

RASP didn’t just win their campaign, they also stood eight candidates in the parish and district elections in May 1999, under the slogan ‘People Power – Standing Up for Our Community’. Two candidates were elected, defeating New Labour and gaining between 41% and 45% of the vote.

RASP press officer John Moran sent the following letter to the Socialist Party: 

"I am writing to you at the Socialist Party to say ‘thank you’… for the last two years (you) have stood side by side with us as we battled with this huge multi-national… 

(you) showed us how to get organised, how to protest, how to sustain it over all of the time of the campaign… 

now our campaign has become a ‘blue print’ for what can be achieved by ordinary people against these big chemical companies… 

The Socialist Party stood with us when no one else cared".

In the anti-poll tax struggle the Socialist Party (then known as Militant) played a leading role; promoting non-payment as a viable method of fighting the tax, giving confidence to working class people, organising collective action on the estates against the bailiffs, advising non-payers in the courts, and generally developing a strategy at a national and local level to take the struggle forward to a successful conclusion. 

In today’s changed political situation, with the Labour Party now clearly a party of big-business, a community struggle of this nature standing candidates in elections, could have a much wider political impact.

Join us

FUTURE STRUGGLES AND events will lay the basis for a new mass workers’ party to be built. Recent strikes and struggles have given a glimpse of how they might unfold on a much bigger scale. 

But it will not be an automatic process. If we are to avoid the set-backs and missed opportunities which have already taken place both in Britain and internationally, then an organised force has to be built which has a clear understanding of what needs to be done.

If you are a trade unionist, community activist, environmentalist, radicalised student or young person, or simply someone who wants a better future, then join us now; help us to build the Socialist Party into a force which can play a key role in the struggle to create a new mass workers’ party; help us to provide a programme and organisation for ending capitalism and for bringing about a socialist society.

 

 

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